In the maintenance of health, it is often desirable to test body fluids for the presence or absence of particular substances. To this end, many testing devices have been invented previously by the Applicants and others. Testing devices invented by the applicant are shown in Kloepfer et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,696,240; 6,840,912; and Published Application Nos. EP 01309073.3 (published as EP 1202057A3 on 2 May 2002); EP 02794170.7 (published as EP 1450675A1 on 19 Jun. 2003); U.S. Ser. No. 10/916,292 (published as US 2006/0034728 on 16 Feb. 2006); and EP 05107323.7 (published as EP 1625823A3 on 3 May 2003)
Currently, a need exists for a test unit that is self-contained insofar as it comprises a unitary unit that contains all of the primary “disposable” components required for typical body fluid testing. These disposable components include a lancet for piercing the skin, and a testing area, wherein the fluid (usually blood) that is sought to be obtained, and that flows from the lanced skin after the skin has been lanced, can be separated and is separated into a plasma component and a fraction containing other components. On such a testing device, the plasma reacts with the reagents on the test member to form reagent-bound (or reagent-reacted) reactant compounds that can be used to quantitatively or semi-quantitatively determine the presence or absence of a substance within the blood such as glucose or cholesterol.
To this end, the readers attention is directed particularly to Kloepfer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,840,912 (the “Test Wand” Patent), that discloses a self-contained test wand. The self-contained test wand shown in the Kloepfer patent includes a unitary device that includes the following four components: (1) a spring-loaded lancet capable of piercing the skin; (2) a pressure cuff that contains an annular lip for exerting pressure around the lancing site, that helps foster the flow of blood out of the lanced site; (3) a swab that is provided for cleaning the lanced site before and after the lancing of the site; and (4) a test member that includes means for separating the cellular components of blood from the plasma components.
The test member also includes one or more reagents that can react with the components of interest in the plasma of interest, to thereby convert these components into reagent reactive components that can then be employed to determine the quantity of the components of interest. The test wand is designed to be used in connection with a meter, such as the one glucose meter disclosed in Kloepfer et al., U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2006-0034728 (16 Feb. 2006) (the “Meter Patent”). The meter disclosed in the above-referenced Kloepfer patent application employs either reflectance or transmittance photometry techniques to determine the quantity of the component of interest.
The reader's attention is directed to the above-referenced Kloepfer patents and patent applications, both for their disclosure of various devices, and for their discussion of the need for testing such body components, the chemical aspects of testing for such components, and the disease and social aspects of the reasons for the testing for such components.
Although the test wand(s) disclosed in the various Kloepfer patents perform their intended function in a most admirable manner, room for improvement still exists. In particular, room for improvement exists in producing alternative test wand units that may be smaller, and thereby take up less room; or that may be less expensive to produce, or, that may be better adapted to use in connection with other types of meters, such as the meter disclosed in Applicants'co-pending mobile transmission device meter patent application, U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2006-0222,567 (5 Oct. 2006) (the “Cell Phone” Patent). Another desire is to provide a device that has improved performance, when compared to devices shown in the earlier Kloepfer references.